This holiday season shopping has gone mobile in a big way

The 2011 holiday season that was kicked off earlier today (Black Friday) is proving to be a big boost for m-commerce as shoppers are using their smartphones, mobile apps and other devices to go bargain hunting according to various sources. Call it the season on couch commerce.

According to IBM’s (s IBM) Smarter Commerce division, the number of consumers using a mobile device to visit a retailer’s site is 17.37 percent with almost 9.73 percent of consumers using mobile device to make a purchase. IBM points out that iPhone leads all mobile device traffic – no surprise – at 6.77 percent, followed by Android phones at 5.37 percent and iPad at 4.67 percent.

Akamai’s (s AKAM)data traffic trends show that while traffic on mobile websites of retailers is up nearly four times compared to last year. The increases reported by IBM and Akamai are backed by a PayPal, which…